Russia Plans to Take Out WikiLeaks

NSA predicts 'ruthless' response if Assange dishes dirt on Kremlin
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2010 8:04 AM CST
Russia Plans to Take Out WikiLeaks
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gestures during a panel discussion at an economic leadership forum organized by a German newspaper in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 26, 2010.   (AP Photo/Gero Breloer)

US intelligence officials think WikiLeaks has evidence of graft and corruption among Russia’s leaders, and predict that Moscow will stop at nothing to shut down the organization. “We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far,” one law enforcement official tells the Daily Beast, but “the Russians play by different rules.” The NSA has electronic evidence that the FSB has the group under close surveillance, and Russian spies have publicly hinted at a cyberwarfare campaign designed to “shut it down forever.”

Julian Assange recently bragged to one pro-government Russian newspaper that he had damaging info “about your government and businessmen” that he’d publish soon. The owner of another newspaper says he believes the Kremlin raided a bank he owns because his reporters talked to WikiLeaks. But Putin isn’t the only threat Assange has to worry about. Interpol has issued a “Red Notice” against him, CNN reports, requesting all member nations to assist in locating Assange so that he can be extradited to Sweden to face rape charges. (More WikiLeaks stories.)

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